Muster Rolls

307-A. (a) When works are carried out by departmental agency the daily attendance of labourers will be recorded on muster rolls (Form no. 30-E) by an official deputed by the local officer and materials will be paid for on a supplier’s bill or on a hand receipt (Form no. 30-F). The monthly expenditure on each separate work will be recorded on Form no. 30-G. In the remarks column of that form will be entered information showing in what part or parts of the building or buildings the materials purchased and labour employed have been used.

NOTE—The account of monthly expenditure kept in Form no. 30-G above should be abstracted on Form no. 33 and submitted to the Accountant General in accordance with the instructions laid down in a paragraph 310. Muster rolls (Form no. 30-E) will not be submitted.

(b) Muster rolls should be prepared and dealt with in accordance with the following rules :

(1) One or more muster rolls should be kept for each work, but muster rolls should never be prepared in duplicate. It is permissible, however, to keep one muster roll for labourers employed upon several small works, in cases in which no harm can result if the total unpaid wages are regarded as relating only to the largest work in the group.

(2) Labourers may be paid more than once a month and the period covered by each payment may be determined locally; but separate rolls must be prepared for each period of payment.

(3) The daily attendances and absences of labourers and the fines inflicted on them should be recorded daily in part I of the muster roll in such a way as —

(i) to facilitate the correct calculation of the net wages of each person for the period of payment;

(ii) to render it difficult to tamper with or to make unauthorized additions to or alterations, in entries once made, and

(iii) to facilitate the correct classification of the cost of labour by works and sub-heads of works where necessary.

(4) After a muster roll has been passed by the local officer, payment thereon should be made as expeditiously as possible. Each payment should be made or witnessed by the official of highest standing available, who should certify to the payments individually or by groups, at the same time specifying both in words and in figures, at the foot of the muster roll, the total amount paid on each date. If any items remain unpaid, the details thereof should be recorded in part II of the register of arrears, before the memorandum at the foot of the muster roll is completed by the person who made the payment.

(5) Unpaid items should subsequently be carried forward from muster roll to muster roll until they are paid, the payments being recorded and certified in part II in the same way as payments of current items. It is optional, however, with the local officer to adopt any other alternative method of making payments of unpaid wages, provided that a systematic record of items remaining unpaid is maintained on the basis of the original entries made in part II of the muster roll under clause (4) above, that a systematic record of such payments is maintained and that suitable precautions are taken to prevent double payments.

(6) Wages remaining unpaid for three months should be refunded into Treasury.

(7) The payment of daily labour through a contractor instead of by muster roll in the usual way, is objectionable in principle. In a case of great emergency it may sometimes be found impossible to employ labour otherwise than through a contractor. Should it be possible in such a case, to determine the quantities of work done after its completion or at intervals during its progress, it is expedient to pay the contractor, at suitable rates, on the basis of work actually executed. To avoid disputes with the contractors, they should be encouraged to sign the daily reports in token of their acceptance as correct.

N.B.—The use of the muster roll is not permissible in such cases.

(8) When it is necessary to bring labourers and artificers from a distance they may be allowed wages for the number of days occupied in the journey to and from the site of the work, if they join the work with proper despatch. At the discretion of the local officer, bona fide travelling expenses may also be allowed to them. The above charges must be borne by the estimate of the work.

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